D.C. Current

2013's Top News: Fracking, Snowden, Obamacare

One triumph and two disasters kept the media busy. Thank you for low interest rates, Ben Bernanke.

Whew, what a year! There were scads of notable financial stories from Washington, D.C., because, let's face it, for better or worse, the city has become the financial capital of the U.S. Uncle Sam is now Wall Street's chairman of the board. In the old "daze" before the meltdown, financial firms handled business here with slick-haired, silk-suited lobbyists. Nowadays, it's the chairmens and CEOs themselves on bended knee in the corridors of power, begging—checkbooks in manicured hands—for forbearance and regulatory...